Katelyn Turns 5 Months!!

Well, Katelyn is now 5 months old and as cute as ever!

So...a couple of updates! Our trip to Atlanta was wonderful! It even snowed one day while we were there! We leave on Monday, February 4 for a week-long ski trip with Kristen's parents to Taos, New Mexico! We are really looking forward to spending some quality time with them! Katelyn and Mamaw are going to keep the lodge warm while Peepaw, Dave, and Kristen do a little snowskiing.

Then, on March 12, we will leave on our first international trip as a family! Yep, you guessed it! We are going to China for a 10-day visit! Dave actually has some meetings to attend, so we thought this would be a perfect opportunity for Kristen and Katelyn to return with him! We are so excited for our team members and Chinese friends to finally meet Katelyn (outside of the womb!!), not to mention the excitement we have to reconnect with them! Please pray that Katelyn's passport and all of our visas arrive in a timely manner. All of the paperwork has been sent off, so now we are just waiting patiently.

Thanks for sharing in our excitement about our upcoming travels! We consider these trips great gifts from the Lord!

Katelyn Flies the Friendly Skies!

We left this past Sunday, January 13th for Atlanta, and Katelyn did great on her first airplane ride!!  We are really enjoying our time in Newnan (a city just south of Atlanta) and have experienced some real southern hospitality from Dave's boss, Randy Ebeling, and his wife, Linda. They lived quite a few years in Austin, Texas before moving to Georgia a couple years ago. Katelyn and Kristen have enjoyed spending time with Linda during the day while Dave and Randy carpool to the office and work hard all day!  Randy and Linda even offered to babysit Katelyn last night so we could go on a date!  What a treat that was!  Don't know if we've mentioned Katelyn's most recent milestones lately, but she started sleeping from 7 p.m.-7 a.m. a couple weeks ago!  It has been such a blessing for all of us to get a full night's rest!  Also, just yesterday, as Dave and Randy walked in the door from work, Katelyn rolled over for the first time!!  All kinds of "firsts" happening....and so fast!

Happy New Year!

First of all, Happy New Year!! We hope you are enjoying your start to the new year! Sorry for the delay in updating our blog, but we are finally settling in after holiday travel, and boy does it feel good!

We had a wonderful time in Austin and Waco with our families! A couple of highlights....Katelyn's first Christmas, of course! We think she enjoyed it (see pictures below), but its so hard to tell with a four-month old! Due to Kristen's dad's work schedule, we celebrated Christmas that night instead of the morning, so Katelyn was doing well just to be awake! During our time in Waco, Dave and I had another chance to go on a date, and as always, it was quite fun!!

In addition to it being Katelyn's first Christmas, another highlight was the Annual Bradberry Christmas card decorating contest that Kristen's dad judges. We all made Christmas cards out of paper bags....everyone wins 1st place, it just depends on what category you win in (Kristen's dad makes up different categories each year). Kristen won 1st place for "Best Use of Ribbon" (third card in the row of cards below) and Dave won 1st place for "Best Design." (first card in row of cards below)

News from our Chinese Teacher!

We thought you would enjoy reading an excerpt from a recent e-mail we received from our Chinese teacher, Belinda. This is someone we have been praying for (and you have too!), and it is so exciting to see how God is continuing His good work in the lives of people we love!

"I am really happy to be here, to be in this school,and to know many good frinds like you, and to be closer and know more about Jesus and to feel his love, I'm very thankful! So Merry Christmas!"

A Merry CHRISTmas indeed!! Sheng Dan Kuai Le (Merry Christmas in Chinese!)

Gifts from the East!

We are so excited to share with you about some special news we received from the East recently! Dave's Chinese co-worker, Emmy, recently shared with us that two new Chinese employees in the office (one whom Kristen works with in marketing and the other who Dave works with in accounting) have become Family members!!

Also, Kristen just received the e-mail below from one of the girls who was in her weekly study. She has graduated and is now a teacher's assistant (TA) in the junior kindergarten class at one of LDi's international schools (Tianjin International School-TIS). The Father is working in such wonderful ways in her life!

I am living with Nancy who is the second grade TA at the TIS, and I am so grateful for being her roommate... She has been seeking after the Father, and always thinking about how to serve the Father and the people around her and striving for telling more people the good news. We always encourage each other and pr'ay together often. I am really grateful that I enjoy the peace and joy at this point of my life.

A sister's friend who had heard of the good news before, came from Beijing to Tianjin for a job interview, and stayed at our apartment. We pr'ayed before we met her that the Father would soften her heart and open her spiritual eyes and bless us with wisdom to communicate with her. Guest what? We were able to have a good conversation with her and finally she decided to believe the Father!

We are going to have two-week Christmas in one week...A sister is working at an elementary school where most of the teachers are believers, and I am going there to help a little bit for a week or so. A friend whose is not a believer but whose heart is open is going with me...Could you please pr'ay that the Father will open her eyes and help her know more about Him during our trip and let her feel His presence? Thank you:)

I hope will is well with you...May the Father pour out His blessings, grace, love, peace and joy unto you and your family...

We are so thankful for the work that the Father is doing in East Asia, and we continue to pry for him to move in mighty ways--especially during this season that is a mystery to so many living there.

Here Comes Katelyn Claus!

Courtesy of Kristen's grandparents (AKA mom and pop), Katelyn is wearing the cute Christmas outfit you see in the picture below! We are enjoying every bit of it, and we hope you do too! Merry Christmas!

Lookin' Good!!

Just a fun picture to keep you entertained! More updates to come soon...